Writing an award application might be time consuming but entering your business is a fantastic way to showcase your achievements, gain recognition for your hard work, moral boosting for team members, and promote your business by telling the story.
If you go on to be a finalist or even win a business award this can be used to attract new clients and raise your profile. Winning a business award gives your business instant credibility and allows you to be seen as a leader in your industry. An award is highly valued by prospective clients.
What if you don’t win? The process is still beneficial for your business. The application process asks questions about your business that can provide you with a better insight into your achievements, values and possibly help you to create content about your business. You can then reuse some of your answers on your marketing material or for future award applications.
Having hosted several sell out business awards evening and developed an application and judging process that encouraged a record number of businesses to be involved in the local business award process I wanted to share some of my top tips that I have seen from the winners over the years:
Sounds obvious right? But most people will work to a deadline and not allow time for others to contribute or provide valuable feedback.
Review the questions to determine how long it will take you to write the answers. This will give you a good indication of what type of information you will need to complete. Often applications allow appendix to support the application – it’s a good idea to start collating supporting evidence as part of the application.
Again… this sounds so obvious! Answer all the question – of course! You will be surprised the amount of applications I have read that doesn’t actually answer the question and totally deters from answering the information requested in the question. Make sure you read every question carefully and understand how it should be answered.
It’s important to not go over the word limit. Your answers should be succinct, well phrased and provide the most important information to help you win the award.
Most judges won’t know your business and they won’t know what makes you great! This means you need to tell them! Explain why your business deserves to win the award, talk about your achievements and show the judges how great the business is.
Business awards are an excellent process to be part of and even better when you win! Invest time into the process and the PR possibilities are endless.
If you need help and support with your application process give me a call and ask about my award writing packages – I love filling out award application forms – let me be part of your process and unlock the winning award for your business.
Contact Caroline Cox Email: [email protected] or phone: 01623 362083